OFF THE SHELF; Investment Advice From Four Very Different Angles

By PAUL B. BROWN

Published: October 9, 2011

CORRECTION APPENDED

IT seems that the nation's publishers are just as perplexed about investing as the rest of us.

You might expect them to be rushing out dozens of books offering advice about what to do in a market that has bounced around like a 7-year-old on a sugar high -- and has lately tripped over its own feet. But they have published very few.

Instead, they have mainly opted to approach the problem sideways. They are telling you how to put money in context, so that you will presumably be less upset about the market's gyrations. They are telling you how to save more, so that you presumably can offset your investment losses. And they are even releasing a novel about an appealing young economics professor struggling to make his way in the real world -- to show you, presumably, that things are tough even for the experts.

Let's start with a compendium of savings tips, ''Clark Howard's Living Large in Lean Times'' (Avery, $18). Mr. Howard, who has a syndicated radio show and a program on HLN television, has a premise that is simple -- and depressing. He says that it could take as long as 10 years for the economy to recover, so you need to cut costs now.

The book offers more than 250 suggestions, many of them familiar: Buy a used car instead of a new one. Reduce or eliminate what you pay for cable or satellite entertainment. Raise your insurance deductibles.

But it also offers ideas you might not have considered: Buy three copies of the Sunday newspaper -- not to pad circulation, but to get more sets of the coupons inside; have your eyeglass prescription filled online; cancel your gym membership and see whether your local hospital will let you use its rehabilitation/fitness facilities. And, when your computer printer sends a message that it is almost out of ink, remove the cartridge and shake it for what he says may be ''several weeks' more use.''

''The Ultimate Financial Plan'' (Wiley, $27.95) deals with less tangible matters. While it covers most of the traditional topics found in a personal finance book, it really isn't one. Insurance and estate planning get the bulk of the attention in its 250 pages. Investing and portfolio management receive just one 39-page chapter.

But to their credit, the writers -- Jim Stovall, an inspirational speaker and author, and Tim Maurer, a financial planner -- say up front that they are not writing the usual personal finance book. Their goal is to help you decide where money fits into your life. ''Money without purpose is like fuel without a destination,'' they write. ''It is useless if not dangerous to have around.''

You need to understand that purpose so you aren't frustrated by the goals you set. If, for example, you decide you want to be ''present, physically and intellectually and emotionally'' for your family, it will be very hard to save $3 million to retire comfortably by age 55.

If you line up your financial goals with your personal ones, you may choose to spend more money today to have the kind of life you want, leaving you less for retirement. If you have truly considered that choice, the authors say, the decision is a good one. They believe you should have a complete life, one that shouldn't begin at retirement.

Retirement planning should ''never be undertaken with the thought that with enough money you could buy your way out of servitude in a job or career you hate,'' they write. It ''should be looked upon as a way to continue to live your life the way you have always lived your life as a happy, fulfilled, contented person, making a difference in the world around you.''

A traditional book in the current bunch is ''The Smartest Portfolio You'll Ever Own'' by Daniel R. Solin (Perigee, $22). As in his previous books, Mr. Solin is critical of traditional investment advisers, many of whom, he says, put their interests ahead of their clients'. He advocates a diversified portfolio of index funds.

What is different here is that he suggests a greater concentration of small-cap and value stocks within the equity part of a portfolio.

How concentrated? Mr. Solin offers five model portfolios, ranging from what he describes as low risk (20 percent stocks; 80 percent bonds) to high risk (100 percent stocks). In the medium-risk portfolio (60 percent stocks; 40 percent bonds), small-cap and value investments would make up 36 percent of your total holdings. Increasing your concentration in any specific investment increases risk, but Mr. Solin says it will be more than offset by the potential return.

The story follows David Fox, a newly minted Ph.D. who has just been hired on a one-year contract to teach at a small college in upstate New York. He is struggling to learn how to teach, and he can't find time to do the research that will help him get tenure. And his social life is, well, complicated. On top of all that, a right-wing research group wants to promote a paper he did in grad school that proved the economic benefits of sexual abstinence -- but that was based on math that is suddenly in doubt.

This book is not merely entertaining. It manages to slip in some extremely clear explanations of supply and demand, game theory, marginal costs and the like, which might well seem fuzzy when presented in more conventional form. And understanding how markets are supposed to work can be helpful in figuring out what to do on your own.

PHOTOS (PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM P. O'DONNELL/THE NEW YORK TIMES)

Correction: October 16, 2011, Sunday

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: The Off the Shelf column in the Mutual Funds Report, Part 2 of this section last Sunday, misstated the title of one of the reviewed books. It is ''Clark Howard's Living Large in Lean Times,'' not ''Howard Clark's.'' The error was repeated with a later reference to ''Mr. Clark.''